Many villagers in no-go zone refuse to leave amid volcano eruption in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Many people living in the no-go zone in Indonesia's Bali resort island have rejected to evacuate as the authorities are warning them against the threat of hot ash and rains of hot rock from erupting Mount Agung volcano.

Unawareness of the danger of the volcano eruption and reluctance to leave their livestock are the major reasons of those villagers to stay in the evacuation zone of 8 to 10 km from the crater, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Wednesday.

The spokesman said that in the 22 villages in the no-go zone, only a total of 43,358 people out of about 90,000 have already evacuated to safer places.

"They must evacuate because they live in the areas which are prone to disasters in the form of hot ash, rains of hot rocks and heavy downpours of ash which all are very dangerous and deadly," he told Xinhua in a text message.

The authorities have kept urging those people to leave immediately and take shelters in evacuation centers or other safer areas, Sutopo said.

President Joko Widodo on Wednesday has also called on the people to evacuate as soon as possible.

Anticipating the risks of a major volcano eruption and rising flows of cold lava, the authorities in Karangasem district have declared a 14-day state of emergency for the area starting from Nov. 27, said Sutopo.

Bali's Mount Agung erupted last time in 1963 and an estimated 1,500 people died. Enditem